Revolutionary leader Bob Avakian has said:

No more generations of our youth, here and all around the world, whose life is over, whose fate has been sealed, who have been condemned to an early death or a life of misery and brutality, whom the system has destined for oppression and oblivion even before they are born. I say no more of that. (1:13, BAsics, from the talks and writings of Bob Avakian) 

What follows is just one example of the way this system condemns generations of our youth to an early death or a life of misery and brutality, one that came to light earlier this month.

On March 3, 30 guards who worked at the Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall detention center in Downy, CA, 13 miles south of downtown LA, were indicted on charges of child abuse, conspiracy, and battery. These monsters are accused of allowing—and in most cases instigating—groups of imprisoned youth to violently assault other youth. These thugs then stood by and watched and smiled as the assaults were taking place and rewarded those doing the beatings with special meals.

According to the California Attorney General's office, there were at least 69 of these organized beatings in the second half of 2023 alone, involving 143 victims ages 12 to 18. The detention center holds 300 children and youth.

These fights only became public after the LA Times published a leaked video of one of the organized assaults in January 2024. The video shows five pigs standing by while multiple teens take turns attacking a 17-year-old inside Los Padrinos in December 2023. One of the guards can be seen smiling as she oversees the assaults, and another guard shakes hands with one of the teens after he knocks down the victim and kicks him on the floor. 

How long have these guard-instigated beatings been going on? A defense attorney said he has called these beatings “gladiator fights” for years and that they are an open secret. He said clients have long told him about some youths at Los Padrinos receiving “food rewards” from guards for attacking other youths. But nothing was done because the youths felt it was too risky to speak out against their jailers, and felt they had to carry out the attacks set up by the guards. 

How organized were these “gladiator fights”? One youth told the LA Times guards would point out youths they had targeted—for cursing at the guards, refusing to get out of the shower, etc. If that youth beat up the target, the next day he would receive a special bag of fast food from the kitchen. This witness said the guards would organize beatings when a new youth arrived who they thought was from a gang, or “hood,” that didn't get along with the youth from those at the juvenile prison already there. The youth said, “It's control. They wanna run the unit, have a smooth day.” The LA Times reporter learned that new guards were told “they were not to say anything, write down anything, and just watch when the fights occurred.” 

How violent were the beatings? One 17-year-old told the Times he was attacked three times in one day, leaving him unconscious with a broken nose and a traumatic brain injury as a result. A lawyer for this victim and a 16-year-old has filed suits on their behalf.

This is the utterly inhuman way that children and youth have been treated for years in this juvenile detention center in LA. Of the 299 children and youth locked up at Los Padrinos in January 2024, 184 were Latino, 98 were Black, and 11 were white. For guards who carried out this atrocity—and for the rulers of this system of capitalism-imperialism that these pigs serve—they have no use for these youth. They see oppressed youth as nothing but useless “garbage”—and potentially a threat to their rule—to be confined and controlled with whatever violence and brutality they deem necessary.

But the world does not have to be this way!

We end the article with this clip from Bob Avakian, where BA lays out with real heart how people are pushed into and get caught up in the gladiator mentality… and how they can get out. If what he says moves you, then go deeper—get into the Bob Avakian Interviews, 2025, Humanity Does Not Have To Live This Way. Find out why that is so, and how we could be living. And then act to put an end to a system that does something as foul and degrading to our young people as “gladiator fights.”